Chaos Mage Talents

Written by Martin K.

Axiomatic Pet

You have befriended a small creature that likes to hang around near you to get petted and fed. It seems completely oblivious to the chaos and mayhem that surrounds you. It outright ignores any High Weirdness effects, and you have a nagging feeling that the universe has sent it to counterbalance the effects of your powers. You're not quite sure if your pet is magical, since any attempt to detect magic on it failed. It does seems to have limited shapeshifting abilities, with a preference for cat or fox forms. The pet won't join you in a fight, and it can't be targeted by spells or attacks.

Once per day, your pet allows you to suppress chaos for the blink of an eye and predetermine one random outcome, such as a die roll or spell determination, before you make the roll. The safe path is to choose an average result. Forcing a natural 20 is risky, and invites a karma backlash similar to a 5 on an icon relationship roll. A well-fed and well-cared for pet might grant this power more often.

Adventurer feat: Your pet has one ability from the Wizard's Familiar talent list.

Blip of Bardishness

You gain a random spell or song from the bard class. Whenever you take a full heal-up, randomly choose a bard spell of up to highest level you can cast. For the rest of the day, you know this spell and can cast it according to its normal usage pattern—at-will, once per battle, recharge, or daily—when that option comes up during your chaos mage spellcasting sequence.

Adventurer feat: After each full healup, you gain 1d4 background points in a random artistic talent, representing an unexpected inspiration. Unfortunately it only lasts for a day.

Champion feat: After each full healup, you gain a random bardic battlecry. You can use this battlecry once that day. You can trigger this battlecry with spell attack rolls.

Epic feat: If you don’t like either the random bard spell or the battlecry you rolled for the day, roll again. You’re stuck with the second one.

Chaos-Fueled Enmity

Choose an icon you have a negative relationship with. You lose the ability to cast iconic spells connected to that icon.

If you face servants of that icon, monsters associated with it or even the hated icon itself, roll a d6 at the start of your turn. If you roll equal to or lower than the escalation die, you fall into a spell frenzy.

While in a spell frenzy, you roll two d20 for each of your chaos mage spell attacks and use the higher die as your attack roll. If you still miss all attack rolls of the spell, you teleport to a random location on the map and you are dazed until the end of your next turn.

The frenzy lasts until the end of battle. You can end it as a free action if no more enemies connected to that icon are on the battlefield.

Chaos Knight

You were already a trained combatant when the chaos engulfed you. Unlike other Chaos Mages, you know which end of the sword to point towards your enemies. You do not suffer the attack penalties for light or heavy melee weapons, and your base AC in light or heavy armor is increased by 2.

Add two additional stones that represent swords to the bag that determines your powers for the next round.

When you draw a sword, instead of gaining a spell, roll a d6 to determine the bonus you get until the end of your next turn.

(1) Air: On an even hit with a melee basic attack, make a second attack. If you take damage from an attack, deal thunder damage to all nearby enemies equal to your level.

(2) Earth: If you miss with a melee attack, deal half damage. Gain a +1 bonus to PD.

(3) Fire: On a hit with a melee attack, deal twice your level in fire damage to all enemies you are engaged with. You gain a +5 bonus to disengage checks, and deal twice your level in fire damage to enemies you disengage from.

(4) Water: On a hit with a melee attack, deal ongoing poison damage equal to your level. You don't provoke opportunity attacks and you cannot be intercepted.

(6) Void: As part of your first melee attack this turn, you can teleport to engage an enemy you can see. If an attack against you is an odd hit, you can take damage equal to your level and redirect the attack against a random nearby target, which can be friend or foe.

Adventurer feat: You can wear heavy armor and shields without penalty.

Champion feat: The first time you rally in a battle, roll on the high weirdness table, and the recovery is free.

Epic feat: You gain a +1 bonus to melee attacks against opponents that are affected by your high weirdness.

Curative Chaos

When you cast a spell that lets yourself or an ally spend a recovery to heal, you can choose to let another random ally also spend a recovery.

Adventurer feat: Add your Charisma modifier to the hit points healed when you let a target spend a recovery. Double this bonus at 5th level, triple it at 8th.

Destructive Chaos

Adventurer feat: If there is an ongoing High Weirdness effect nearby, increase the bonus to +3.

Champion feat: The first time you cast a chaos mage attack spell in a battle, increase all dice by one step (d10 to d12, d12 to 2d6).

Epic feat: If you score a critical hit with a chaos mage daily or once per battle spell, that spell slot is not expended.

Enlightened Clarity

Control is an illusion. Desire is an illusion. The self is an illusion. What the mind perceives as chaos is merely the universe making whole what selfish and unenlightened minds have broken.

You use Wisdom instead of Charisma for chaos mage spells. You also gain a bonus daily spell.

Adventurer feat: Once per battle, after you cast a spell, return its token to the bag you use to determine your chaos mage spells.

Champion feat: Once per battle, when you determine the target of a spell randomly, roll twice and choose the result.

Epic feat: You gain resist magic 14+.

Entropic Shield

Once per battle, when you take damage that would reduce you below zero hit points, you can take half damage from that attack instead. This is a free action. You also gain an additional effect based on your current chaos spell selection.

Attack: Deal damage to a random nearby enemy equal to half the damage you took.

Defense: Select three nearby locations and teleport to one at random.

Iconic: Increase the escalation die by 1. Until the end of battle, all combatants, including enemies, can benefit from the escalation die.

Adventurer feat: You can use this ability if you would be staggered after taking the damage, but still only once per battle.

Champion feat: You also negate any non-damage effect from the attack.

Epic feat: Once per battle, you can use this ability to reduce damage to a nearby ally. (This is an additional use per battle.)

Low Weirdness

Whenever the game calls for you to roll on the High Weirdness Table, roll a d6 on the table below instead.

(1) A few rose petals slowly fall to the ground and a light scent perfume fills the room.

(2) A mirror image of yourself silently bows, then tiptoes out of the room.

(3) All sounds are muffled for a moment, except for the sound of crickets in the distance.

(4) There's an uncomfortable itch in a random nearby creature's left toe.

(5) A brilliant flash of light and then... nothing.

(6) For a moment, there is an annoying hum behind a random character's ear, as if from a mosquito.

Feel free to customize this table to fit your character.

Adventurer feat: You learn the Prestidigitation cantrip.

Champion feat: You are immune to magic item quirks. Instead, if you carry more items than your level allows, you take a -5 penalty to item power recharge rolls.

Epic feat: Once per day, when a randomly targeted attack, power or effect would target you, you can let it fizzle without effect instead.

Patron Icon

Pick an icon you have a positive or conflicted relationship with. If you have more than one, determine it randomly during each full healup. Once per battle, you can choose to cast an iconic spell connected to the icon even if you have not drawn an iconic spell for that turn.

Adventurer feat: You gain a +1 bonus to hit with the spell.

Champion feat: Add an additional target when you cast a spell of that icon.

Epic feat: When you get an iconic spell and randomly roll your patron icon, increase the escalation die by 1.

Unleashed Chaos

Whenever you draw an attack spell, increase your critical threat range with chaos mage spells by 1 until the end of the battle. Multiple triggers stack.

Adventurer feat: You gain a +2 bonus to your critical threat range when you draw an iconic spell of an icon you have a relationship with.

Champion feat: When you score a critical hit with a daily chaos spell, the spell is not expended.